Create Your Roadmap To Financial Independence

You can achieve financial freedom with an affluent lifestyle, or a frugal one. Financial freedom is not having to work to pay for that lifestyle, but rather having the freedom to wake up every morning and spend your hours as you choose. You can make this happen with some discipline and a plan. This is an educational site to get you started. We don’t sell you products nor manage your money.

This website provides you time-proven wisdom in short video tutorials to help you take control of your own finances — enable your life dreams.. See and hear easy-to-understand, unbiased advice direct from industry experts and Nobel prize-winners.

Everyone knows that saving early and investing in low-cost broadly-diversified index funds is the path to investment wealth. Especially if you are comfortable with math and finances.

But what if you are just starting out? What if this is just the first time you’ve wondered about sensible investing? Unfortunately, you’ll need to learn a bunch of new stuff. For example, you must learn:

whether to pick stocks or use mutual funds

how to recognize a superior mutual fund or ETF

how to choose an investment company or financial advisor

will your savings rate achieve your long-term goals

how much to invest in stocks? how much in bonds?

If everybody was the same then we could all learn the same simple answer. Of course, we each have different situations. So, you’ll need to learn a few things and commit to lifelong learning. To do it right a beginner needs to

digest a good book about investing (but which is a good one?)

wrap your mind around some investing concepts

get started with some trial and error, hoping you’ll eventually recognize and learn from all costly mistakes

Fortunately, sensible investing is really straight-forward!

Sensible investing is really rather straight-forward and easy to understand, yet not easy. Our emotions tempt us off the course of good investing behavior.

Easy-to-understand explanations about financing life in plain ordinary English. We don’t use jargon. But if you need to understand a term, we’ll teach it to you. Our only goal is to help you achieve yours.

The Learning Center provides a complete index to all videos as well as recommended books and other resources. Learn how to build an all-weather portfolio—even when interest rates are low. Learn why bonds are essential to every investor.

But, don’t take my word for it!

Consider what these ordinary investors said:

“Best explanation I have ever seen or read!”

— Charles Van Citters (by email)

“The videos are very well done. What a great project!”

— Alice (by email)

Time-Proven Investing Wisdom

The secret to financing life boils down to four principles:

start saving early,

diversify your investments,

minimize costs, and

stick to your plan!

On this website we have a Learning Center where you will find free video tutorials like these:

We also offer inexpensive paperback and ebook tutorials. Consider these formats if you like to learn at your own pace, mark with notes, use as reference, give as a gift, or even just to support this non-profit educational website (thanks!).

There are other books that are gems hidden amongst bewildering garbage. But we sort that out for you and provide you some good investing book recommendations. Once you learn the common sense investing principles, you’ll be able to distinguish the good from the bad on your own.

Investing is sometimes stressful to many, but you can eliminate that stress by learning the common sense investing principles. I’m also going to help you where people make common mistakes. I’ll show you:

why to not confuse speculating with investing(we’re all about investing here),

“Overpaid advisors are burning every copy.”

“Complete, and rock-solid on the fundamentals.”

Easy-to-Understand Explanations in Plain English

You can learn all about financing life in ordinary English. We don’t use jargon. But if you need to understand a term, we’ll teach it to you.

These are important concepts and you need to understand them. We make it easy. How do I do it? I explain it to my wife first. If she says “Huh?”—then I have to figure out a better way to explain it. Because she’s a beginner investor—just like many of you.

I propose this: learn about financing life from our tutorials, then discuss it with your friends and family. If you can explain it—then you understood it. Teaching is very often the best way to learn. And even better: you’ll remember it. And best of all, you’ll be showing somebody that you care enough to help them to finance their dreams.

This is not difficult to understand. Learning these important investing principles will give you confidence. It’s comforting to know whether you’re on the right track—and if not, it is also comforting to know what you need to change.

But don’t take my word for it!

Here’s what other investors say:

“Best explanation I have ever seen or read!”

— Charles Van Citters (by email)

“Thank you for offering a straightforward, no-nonsense approach for investing”

— Kevin (by email)

Unbiased advice from educators — no conflicts of interest

We are unbiased, transparent, and not-for-profit. We sell no products or services at FinancingLife.org other than unbiased financial education. We promise to give you the straight scoop!

Everyone deserves to make a living. At different times you may need various services. But don’t pay for services you don’t need. Most investors that visit our site learn that they are paying the financial services industry too much. Now, recognizing that requires knowing both a little about common sense investing, and also about how other people make their money.

What should you be alert to? Understand how your financial adviser makes money.

Many get commissions for selling you individual bonds or funds. This is usually hidden from you.

Many companies have an interest in the management fee of a stock or bond fund—ultimately these will be a poorer performers for you largely because of those fees. (They are not obvious, because they take them out of your earnings first, but although it may be published it is given obscure names like “expense ratio”.)

Actively managed fees have additional tax consequences—making them more expensive to you in ways that are not apparent.

etc.

Does it sound like I’m biased towards doing it yourself? I am. But I know it’s the optimist in me. Some people do need a little professional help. The catch-22 is that once you know how to hire one, you may no longer need one.

Many charge you a percentage of the total value of your investments—every year! Typically 0.5% to 2+%—right off the top—often for really crappy advice! Grrr.

Learn to eliminate unnecessary fees. Be both frugal and generous. Learn how to choose broadly diversified investments at the least possible cost. If you need a service, pay for it as a one-time fee, not bundled as an ongoing annual expense.